May: month in review
Each month I aim to pick an image that, in my mind at least, captures the flavour of that month. It might not be the best image from the month, or the most spectacular of subjects; it just needs to illustrate something about the month.
The Lloyds Building, City of London
Fujifilm X-S10 | 28mm f/16 1/160s ISO400
What’s this month’s image? It’s the iconic Lloyds Building in the City of London.
Did you do anything to it? The capture is pretty straightforward, but the processing has boosted the contrast and saturation and a little colour grading has been added. Even at f/16 on an ASP-C sensor the sharpness was starting to fall off towards the top of the building, so a little selective sharpening has been added.
What’s it doing here? Helen and I spent a couple of days around Greenwich and central London at the start of the month. While there I photographed a couple of locations that I’d passed by dozens of times when working, but had never had the opportunity to stop to photograph them properly (including, for the first time, the Thames Barrier). However, the Lloyds Building is not one of those locations; for a number of years I spent some time literally over the road from this iconic building, working in the equally famous Gherkin.
I have, of course, snapped the building a couple of times previously, but only in passing between, say, the office and the hotel. This is a first attempt at looking at the building critically and trying to get a decent image. The problem, of course, is that it is utterly lacking in originality.
There is a tendency in the photographic community to look down on so-called ‘tripod holes’ shots - those where you set up where dozens of photographers have shot before and get, unsurprisingly, very similar results to those that have gone before. Now, while I understand some of the disdain, I do take issue with the associated condescension for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, these locations are generally highly regarded for a reason; they’re usually fantastic, picturesque locations and incredibly photogenic. For example, denying yourself the pleasure of a morning walk along the Quiraing because it’s be done before is perverse, and not taking the camera because others have photographed the view before is beyond churlish. Enjoying the moment and enjoying the photographic process should be reward enough.
The second issue is that it’s almost impossible to find a truly original view. The common statistic quoted is that around 95 million photographs are uploaded to Instagram each day, or roughly two for every square mile of land mass on the planet. And while Instagram is the largest platform, Facebook, Flickr, 500px and the like all see high volumes of images uploaded each day.
Now, admittedly, a large number of these images will be pictures of friends, family, dogs, cats and people’s dinners. There’s a large constituency on Instagram who believe, mistakenly, that any iconic view is only enhanced by filling 75% of the frame with their own inane, grinning, meaty face. But there is also a fantastic amount of really good photography posted every day. Additionally, in my lifetime access to these locations has improved immeasurably (and at the extreme we’ve all seen pictures of the queues to access these popular locations, including at the summit of Everest). The technology has also developed to the point where it has democratised photography to the point where excellence is no longer the preserve of the professional.
So, what to do? That iconic viewpoint is iconic because the composition works. Shooting in the golden hour works because the light IS better. For sure, you can move, or shoot in the middle of the day, but you’re then starting from a sub-optimal position. By all means experiment, but don’t ignore the popular shot just because it’s popular. Instead, enjoy the moment and try to do the location justice.
I’ve included a few more shots from the London trip. None are original; I hope all are good representations of the subject.
Have you been up to much else? Despite the two of us being struck down by the COVID, I’ve still managed to get a variety of shots over the month. I set myself a challenge at the start of the month to take and post one image a day on a personal Instagram account. The idea was not to go out of my way or produce captivating images, but rather to capture what was happening as I went about the day. Fair to say the results were mixed, but it was an interesting experiment and one I need to reflect upon. The following are a handful of the more successful images from the month.
Coming Up
We’re off to North Wales in June for the first time in at least two decades. The last time I went it rained… it may not have changed.
